Cherished bonds
by dreamerbydawn
Summary: sirius black, harry decides ,is without a doubt the best godfather there is and living with two marauders certainly makes his dreams for a loving home as real as real can be!
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

disclaimer : i do not own anything that belongs to JKR

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It was one of those sweltering hot summer days in London when the bell rang shrill and demanding at number four privet drive. Vernon Dursley a large beef sized neckless man got up from where he sat at the kitchen table with his wife and son, muttering irritably about salesmen and swore not to even open the door if anyone was trying to sell him worthless products.

His tiny eyes squinted through the peeping hole on the door when he saw a tall handsome man in his early thirties with neatly combed dark hair standing gracefully at his doorstep. The man looks too well dressed to be a salesman, Dursley decided as he eyed the other man's white button up shirt and fitting blue jeans.

But if it was a guest, then it was pretty rude of him to drop in without calling, maybe I should let him be and come again another time after proper intimation, he thought and just as he made up his mind he saw his dratted nephew's owl fly out and watched hotly as the stranger eyed the bird. Quickly he threw the door open and the other man looked away from the bird and smiled down at him.

"good morning you must be Mr. Vernon Dursley" he began politely "I'm sorry for not having called earlier but I'm your wife's childhood acquaintance and I've not had the chance to visit London in a longtime and now that I'm here, I felt obliged to visit" he said

Ha! A gentleman then, what a pleasant surprise, Dursley thought as he welcomed the man into the living room and offered him a seat. A rich man, there was no doubt about it and works abroad too, will surely be useful to have good connections, with these thoughts and assurances of cookies and a glass of juice he quickly hurried into the kitchen to describe the man to his wife.

Petunia Dursley, long necked, skeletal woman looked surprised. A young man? But she had never let herself be too friendly with boys in her younger days, it was always lily who hung out with a bunch of them, talking and laughing like she was one herself, she shuddered lightly remembering her sister and the boys she generally hung out with. The not so pleasant memories overcame her surprise at finding a male friend who had been close enough to track her here.

Her husband was still saying something about wealthy men and even a visit abroad when she sighed and decided to give up guessing who he might be. "go on petunia, greet him, I will get the cookies and juice and Dudley will bring it out like a little gentleman and you can proudly introduce him."

Dudley watched with raging curiosity as he saw his mother nod absentmindedly before walking out to meet the stranger. After a second to compose herself Petunia Evans Dursley stepped out into the living room, only to lose it again instantly. Of course she would recognize the man anywhere, despite the fact that she had not seen him in approximately in 15 years.

Sirius Black stood up when she entered and smiled – no change that – smirked at her. He was one of lily's dreadful friends from that school of hers and visited often during summers. To be honest, of all of lily's friends, it had always been Sirius that she could tolerate best for he was polite and gracious, at least in her presence.

'No wonder Vernon was so pleased' she thought, the man certainly knew how to be charming when he wanted to and always managed to get his way, the question was, what did he want?

"Petunia, it has been a while" Sirius said, evidently pleased at her reaction.

"Sirius" she replied, half as an explanation, half as a resigned sigh. Maybe it was the lack of overjoyed shrieks or maybe it was just plain curiosity but Vernon Dursley came into the room, nudging his son forward.

Sirius's gaze shifted to the fat boy with the tray and after a momentary gleam in those silvery eyes his expression turned into one of polite curiosity, as once again caught petunia's sight. "Your son tuney?" he asked.

"Yes, this is our son Dudley; he turned 14 only last week, a pity you didn't drop by then" Vernon said beaming. This man must know his wife well if he called her tuney, he thought.

"Ah! A pity indeed" Sirius said smiling at his host "but what of your other son? I heard you adopted your nephew?" he asked sounding deceptively innocent.

'Of course' petunia thought 'this had to be about the boy'

"We did no such thing, you must have heard wrong Mr.-?" she heard her husband say and saw the flash of anger in Sirius's eyes before he replied "Black, Sirius Black"

"Ah, yes Mr. Black, you probably heard some false rumors, we have only one son" he continued making petunia sigh. "Vernon, he knows my sister" she said.

"Who are you talking about dear?" her husband asked. Sometimes the man could be so stupid.

"Lily of course, I've been to the Evans's plenty of times" Sirius replied, his tone harder now though only petunia noticed. Beside her Vernon Dursley fumbled, he hadn't thought of that. "Oh, uh actually we try not to talk about her here" he stated, trying to avoid the topic.

Sirius rose an inquisitive eyebrow "you don't like to talk about your only sister?" he asked. Petunia could easily see the anger building up behind the calm but Vernon who still wanted to impress the other man did not want to be thought less of because of his own comment quickly tried to clear things up "its nothing like you think Mr. Black, you might not have known but lily made a very disrespectful marriage and-" he began

"Disrespectful?" Sirius asked his voice now dangerously calm. Petunia all but whimpered, Sirius had been James's best man and she knew the two had been like brothers and insulting him was not going to end well. But of course, Vernon who knew nothing about any of this continued obliviously "yes, a good for nothing unemployed man, and one such as yourself can obviously se what shame that puts the rest of us to" he said, trying to emphasize that he was the exact opposite.

"Unemployed you say?" Sirius asked coldly and this time Vernon noticed. Thinking the tone was a result of having such shameful relatives tried to make it clear that he hated them. " yes, yes a no account, good for nothing, lazy scrounger-" Vernon began making Sirius clench his hands 'they gave Harry a home when I couldn't, damn I'll never forgive myself for ending up in Azkaban, but I still owe them" he thought as he willed himself to not blast the man into pieced. When that did not work, he tried to remind himself that this man was not worth another trip to the hell hole.

He turned to petunia instead "so you let one small thing make you forget her very existence? I thought better of you than that" he said, his voice showing no inflection what so ever. Petunia instantly knew he was talking about her jealousy and before she could bring herself to say anything, her husband spoke again

"No, no Mr. Black" he said hastily "its just that lily and her husband got drunk and were later killed in a car crash, you can obviously see how thinking of that would hurt petunia" he said and put a massive arm around his wife as though consoling her.

"Of course, it must be extremely hard" Sirius said sarcastically before looking at her in the eye "magic or not, you will never be even half of lily" he said, his voice harsh as he drove the blade in at her weakest spot.

Vernon was gaping and Dudley looked confused but petunia paled as she tried desperately to look away from the grey eyes filled with loathing.

"I demand to know who you really are!" Vernon said suddenly very loudly and petunia was relieved to have those eyes averted from her though she was certain they would haunt her dreams for a long time to come.

"How slow are you? I'm a wizard, James is my best friend and lily is the sister I never had and I also happen to be Harry's godfather" he said his voice low as he continued "now I'll tell you this Dursley, if you open your mouth one more time while I'm here, you'll be seeing your life flash before eyes" his voice had Dudley scampering behind his father.

"Are you threa-" Vernon began when petunia cut in.

"Shut up Vernon!" she shrieked. He looked surprised but let his mouth shut with a click.

"Where is Harry?" Sirius asked, his voice slightly more composed.

"Upstairs, in his room" she replied slowly, still afraid

"Call him" was the instant command.

"That's enough! I expect you to leave my house this instant" Vernon said, some of his courage having returned.

"Let's see if its still standing when I'm done with it" Sirius muttered before turning back to petunia and saying "call him tuney" she tried to speak but the words refused to form and she looked helplessly at her husband.

"BOY I WANT YOU TO GET DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT!" Vernon shouted and Sirius held his wand tightly, willing himself to calm down. "he has a name" Sirius hissed but before Vernon could decide whether to heed to the unspoken threat in the man's voice, they heard the sound of a knob being turned and a door being opened. Seconds later they heard Harry yell back as he stomped down the stairs

"IT'S NOT HEDWIG! SHE"S NOT EVEN HERE AND-" he broke of mid sentence when he saw a guest. Damn! He was done for, he thought, slowing on his way down.

Sirius relaxed visibly at the sight of his godson and smiled up at him. Harry frowned in return; he couldn't recognize the man but was positive he had seen him before. He started more carefully down the last flight of stairs, cursing himself fluently for leaving his wand upstairs when the man winked and stood up.

"Hey Harry!" Sirius said warmly and Harry's mouth fell open. The man before him looked young and handsome, with lustrous locks of slightly long dark hair replacing the previously filthy mats, his pale skin no longer waxy but gleaming softly and the skeletal frame he remembered was still slightly thin but definitely hinted chiseled muscles. The only thing that remained the way Harry knew them were the grey eyes that were still filled with indefinite warmth and love. Sirius was grinning, showing off his sparkly white teeth as he saw Harry take in his profile, remembering that his godson who did not know his love for vanity probably did not expect the first thing he would do once free to be brewing every potion there was to get back in form.

"si-sirius?" Harry asked, still quite unsure. This wasn't the godfather he knew, this was the man who had laughed at his parents wedding.

"yes" Sirius replied softly, his eyes too taking in Harry's now thinner profile and looking concerned. It took Harry a moment to kick start his brain but when he did, he began to panic.

"SIRIUS! You shouldn't be here! What are you doing? You could be seen! You could get caught! ARE YOU-"

"HARRY! Harry stop shouting and Calm down" Sirius said

"But you-" Harry tried to start when his godfather raised a hand to silence him.

"I suppose this explains why you haven't sent me 20 owls demanding to know what on earth was taking me so long and I can't believe _I'm saying this_ but don't you read the prophet at all? Specially in times like this?" Sirius asked still smiling. Harry blinked, it wasn't his fault. He had only stopped buying the prophet after it started selling so much nonsense about him and he thought of saying as much but settled for a "I don't get the prophet."

"Pity, I've been on the front page for nearly a week" Sirius said coolly.

"What?" Harry asked looking slightly dazed making Sirius sigh.

"Harry I-" he started to say but Harry had managed to process what must have happened and he threw himself at his godfather. Sirius laughed and hugged him tighter.

"You're free! You're names been cleared! They caught Pettigrew" Harry declared happily.

"no, that rat is still out there somewhere, not that he's going to be living anywhere much longer but yeah my name's been cleared" Sirius replied as he let go of Harry and tousled his hair.

"I don't believe it! But how? I mean what? No when? And where have you been?" is that why you haven't written in a week? You could have told me! I was so worried but really WOW!" Harry blurted out, the words flying out of him in his excitement.

Sirius laughed again. "How about you get your things and I'll you on our way?" he asked. Harry froze. "WAIT! What? GO? As in I get tot move in with you? Really? I mean like stay with you? You're serious?"

"Always have been" Sirius replied laughing again. There's a nice ring to it, Harry decided

"We're really leaving? NOW?" Harry asked again

"As soon as you get your things" Sirius replied and Harry felt like he was flying. He gave his godfather another fleeting hug before skipping away upstairs.

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A/N : uh I've done the best i could with the Dursleys, do you think its okay? do let me know and also, i'll update on alternate days...till then do R&R!


	2. Chapter 2

A/N : Sirius-Harry time! Yaaay!

V. L . Crawford and The-girl-who-dreamed : Thank you! Hope you found this chapter satisfactory!

Aarent : Thank you too and I've tried my best with the grammar check on this one. hope its okay…?

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"You're taking him?" petunia asked quietly the moment Harry was out of the room.

"I happen to have primary custody now Mrs. Dursley" Sirius said more politely now that his mood had improved.

"You are his godfather?" Dudley asked, speaking for the first time. Sirius eyed the boy for a moment before nodding. A momentary silence hung over the room and Sirius had moved to lounge against the wall by the stairs.

"When will he come back?" Dudley asked, this time addressing his father about his cousin.

"Never I suppose" Sirius replied when he saw Dursley looking at him.

"Good riddance" the man said happily, making Sirius clench and unclench his hands. Another momentary silence engulfed the room before Sirius spoke to petunia, his voice carefully measured.

"Thank you for taking care of Harry when I couldn't, okay maybe that's saying too much but all the same, you had him here and gave him shelter, even if it was under compulsion…you did it despite your hatred… thank you"

"I never hated her" the woman replied weakly.

"It doesn't matter, you didn't love her" Sirius replied.

The sound of a trunk being lugged through the door way effectively put an end to the uncomfortable conversation as Sirius turned to the stairs, taking two at a time to reach his godson. With one quick flick of his wand he shrunk the truck and pocketed it, before turning back to head downstairs. Harry followed close behind, with Hedwig's cage rattling in one hand.

"Uh Sirius?" he called as they made their way to the living room "how are we going wherever we are going?" he asked.

Sirius turned around to face him "you can't apparate?" he asked frowning.

Harry looked shocked "no!" he replied biting his lip when he saw his godfather laugh "I was only kidding and we'll get there don't worry"

The two dark heads entered the living room, Harry still glaring at his godfather as he made his way to the front door. Sirius pulled it open before pausing and turning back

"Aren't you going to say something?" he asked quietly and when Harry looked up at him confused, he placed his hands on the boys shoulder and turned him around to face his relatives.

"Oh. Oh right." Harry said "well bye then!" he continued cheerfully and Sirius sighed. His eyes found petunia for a second, still standing there looking pale before turning away and moving out, Harry trialing after him.

"Whoa!" Harry exclaimed as he looked at the sparkling bike parked majestically across the Dursley's drive way. Sirius grinned "like her?" he asked

"This is your bike? I mean the one…"Harry trialed off

"Yeah! Lucky Hagrid thought of giving it to Arthur who returned it the day my name was cleared" Sirius explained as he hopped on to it before reaching for the cage and tucking it away.

"Come on!" he called; holding out his hand as Harry quickly clambered on. A minute later they were in the air, the wind whooshing past them and the towns shrinking in size below.

"So what happened?" Harry asked still curious.

"Well, on the day your school year ended, I got spotted by Rookwood… it was a close miss and later that night I got pretty annoyed. I didn't like the idea of running and hiding and that sort of decided things for me" Sirius began casually.

"I snuck into Hogwarts, Snape's office and lucky for me I got the potion I was looking for right away. So I took the vial of veritaserum and apparated to Charrings cross. He said before adding "That's where Amelia bones, the head of the law enforcement lives; alone." Harry saw his godfather wink at him in the rearview mirror.

"You didn't!" he exclaimed shocked and saw Sirius shrug.

"But that's extremely dangerous!" He pressed, now alarmed. How reckless could Sirius get?

"Yes, I suppose so, I realized that after Remus chastised me for an hour… loudly enough to permanently scar my sensitive hearing, I might add but actually I didn't think much of it then" Sirius acquiesced.

Harry shook his head "At least professor lupin is sensible about things" still not believing Sirius actually did that. He heard his godfather sigh.

"It's Remus Harry and yes, he has always been the sensible one…"

It was Harry's turn to sigh. "How do you know where Miss Bones lives? And what if someone else had been with her?" he asked.

"I've known her from school, she was four years above me and I know her brother pretty well. He was an auror, so I've been to her place before. I suppose I didn't know that she was alone, it was just a good guess…" Sirius replied trailing off.

Harry was silent for a moment as he imagined Sirius stealing his way into miss. Bones's house before his mind shifted to more gruesome images. Sirius captured, dead and….

"YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE! He shouted making Sirius jump, they lost balance for a moment before Sirius managed to steady the bike again.

"What if something had happened to you? Damn it Sirius! You could have died or….or worse and I'd be left alone again and-" Harry spoke more quietly as he tried to make sense of the thoughts in his head

"It's alright Harry, nothing happened… I'm perfectly fine" Sirius reassured making Harry mumble something about his sanity.

"Anyway I managed to get in pretty easily and she was in her study, working late. Typical Amelia and once I had managed to calm her down and convince her to not kill me, I handed her the veritaserum and let her interrogate me all she wanted. And I'll tell you, that's the longest night I've spent, even counting all the ones spent finishing the history of magic assignments Binns used to set…" Sirius said trying to get Harry to loosen the rigid set of his jaw. When he saw that his distraction wasn't having any effect he continued "she kept it up till four in the morning and when she was done, she asked me to stay at her place a couple of days until she could get me a proper trial. Once the trial began, it took them a whole week to resolve it and finally my name got cleared" he finished very matter-of-factly.

Harry remained silent again, thinking of how easily things could have gone wrong and in how many ways before pushing the disturbing thoughts aside. Sirius was fine and he was here with him and he wouldn't think of all that anymore.

"Harry, Amelia couldn't have killed me and even if she could I knew she would hesitate for at least a moment, you see your dad and me saved her brothers life once and she owed me that….if things went wrong I was counting on that one second to get me safely out of there" Sirius said his tone quieter now.

"How can you be sure?" Harry asked.

"Because Amelia Bones is good to the core… she's a fair and rational woman… a true Ravenclaw, I'll give her that much" Sirius explained.

Harry sighed "I'm just glad you are fine" he mumbled as he put his arms around sirius's waist and leaned closer to his godfather. Sirius patted harry's hands gently before saying "I might be reckless harry-"

"Might?" he heard his godson ask skeptically

"Okay fine I'm reckless" he admitted "but what you should know is that I'm not suicidal"

"I'll hold you to that" Harry muttered making Sirius smile softly.

"I'm sorry you were worried" he said, his voice gentle "I would have come earlier but if I had, I wouldn't have been able to let you live there another day and apart from the setting up of the house and all that, we had planned to center your coming home around your birthday…" he said shrugging

"There's still a week for that Sirius" Harry said, the words coming out slightly garbled due to the sudden sleep that was over powering him

"I know, but I didn't know I wanted to wait any longer. I wanted you home soon" he said

"Hmmm home" Harry muttered or at least that's what Sirius thought he muttered seeing that they weren't exactly coherent. He slowed the bike, letting Harry sleep without the wind disturbing him too much

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At around four, the bike began to descend slowly into the outskirts of Foyer. Another good fifteen minutes of ride later Sirius brought the bike to a slow halt and gently shook Harry awake whispering a quiet "welcome home" to the boy. Harry smiled, all traces of sleep instantly wiped off, he sat up looking around.

He didn't know what he had expected. A quaint little house maybe or perhaps a flat but it definitely hadn't been the large mansion he was currently looking- no change that – gaping at. Lawns stretched out endlessly and a timeless villa stood classically right at the middle. Two intricately carved pillars led to a sheltered foyer and ornately carved mahogany doors that had something inscribed on it.

"It's the black family's summer house" Sirius said before Harry could ask. He nodded mutely deciding instantly that the Blacks must have been rich if they could manage this kind of extravagance. Gold door knobs? Seriously? He thought and before he could inspect it much, Sirius ushered him in.

The living room was large and airy, streaming with sunlight and covered with Gryffindor colors, a large chandelier setting off the room beautifully. The place looked cozy, resembling their common room in more ways than one. Two sets of stairs, again with what looked like solid gold railing curved on to the next floor. The fireplace too had its own golden mantle and yet the simple decorations made the room look rich and elegant instead of extravagant and showy.

"It's beautiful" Harry said, it really was but for some reason his comment made Sirius laugh.

"I'm glad. Actually I wasn't sure if you would like to live here or in London but then Grimmauld place isn't the most inviting and we decided that this was the best" he said, innocently avoiding Harry's eyes.

"Grimmauld place?" Harry queried

"Yeah, the residence of the most ancient and noble house of Blacks" Sirius muttered

"House of what?" Harry asked, too distracted by the room to have paid proper attention

"Never mind Harry, could you do me a favor please? Sirius asked

"Yeah?" Harry said turning to face his godfather

"When Remus gets home, tell him you found some old newspaper that told you enough to deduce that I was free and that you had written to me to come get you immediately will you? Coz Remus isn't going to appreciate his carefully laid plans being disregarded" Sirius said, gazing at him earnestly, his eyes wide.

Harry laughed "you honestly think he'll believe that?" He asked

"No, but it will give me time to run" Sirius replied making Harry laugh again.

"Sure" he replied when he realized that Sirius was still waiting for an answer.

"Good. Now how about you go freshen up in your room?" Sirius asked and when he nodded Sirius continued "it's the second room to your left on the first landing" he said pointing to the stairs behind him.

"Right, see you in a few" Harry said before remembering his things "oh wait, I forgot my-" he began

"Its already in your room Harry" Sirius stated

"Oh okay" Harry said wondering when Sirius had done that. On reaching the first floor, he paused in front of his door. It had Harry written on a gold plate and his eyes widened in surprise. Reaching to open his door, he gasped when it began to sing Happy Birthday. Sirius who had just reached Harry was grimacing.

"Why is my door singing Sirius?" he asked slightly stunned.

"Well as I said earlier, we planned to have you home on your birthday and Remus was grumbling about how I was not helping and lectured me into some usefulness" Sirius explained.

"And making my door sing is useful?" Harry asked trying to suppress a groan. Why hadn't he thought of the side effects of moving in with two of the legendary marauders?

"Well it's a useful spell that James and I invented for your mom's birthday and it's really a pity that it hasn't been used since and I thought…." He trailed off, looking adorable and deceptively innocent.

Harry sighed "does anything else sing?" he asked looking at his godfather's angelic expression

"Your mirror" Sirius answered promptly.

"Of course" Harry said making Sirius chuckle.

"don't worry, I didn't have too much time to enchant everything else" he said with a wink before heading back downstairs, leaving Harry standing in front of his door with a half smile.

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A/N : sorry if this was a tad bit too short but i wanted to leave the remus's entry for the next chapter! :P Reviews welcome as usual!


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